Policy —

Go Sisyphus, go! Here come more CableCARD rules

It's probably too late to revive the failed CableCARD system, but the FCC is …

You can always tell how much faith the Federal Communications Commission actually has in their latest actions by the Commissioner comments. On Thursday, the FCC launched a slew of new rules to shore up the agency's admittedly failed CableCARD mandate. The idea behind the card was simple—consumers get to pick their own TV interfaces instead of being locked into a cable-provided set-top box. The problem—CableCARD has limited functionality and numerous installation issues, and almost no one uses it.

So the FCC tweaked the CableCARD rules this week to make it more appealing. Here is FCC Commissioner Michael Copps' comment about these new provisions:

"As my old boss, Senator Fritz Hollings, used to say: 'The ox is in the ditch,' and I hope this Report and Order will help pull the poor ox out and get him moving again."

If you found that call to arms inspiring, you'll be equally energized by the remarks of Robert M. McDowell:

"Because Congress told us to, we are taking another stab at a remedy today. Perhaps this time Sisyphus will get his boulder to actually stay on top of the hill. But should it roll back into the Valley of Unattained Goals, some may want to ask Congress to consider new options."

The new rules

It doesn't get much more Droopy Dog than this, but maybe these new provisions will actually move an ox or two. The new rules include letting consumers install CableCARD devices themselves, rather than having to wait for their cable company to do it for them; forbidding charges for a leased set-top box when consumers go out and buy their own; requiring more, better, and clearer pricing information, so couch potatoes can better work out the buying-or-leasing decision; and streamlining set-top box testing and certification.

The rules also require the cable companies to provide CableCARD users with support so that they can access channels streamed via Switched Digital Video (SDV) technology—a bandwidth-saving delivery method that can leave some current CableCARD users in the ditch. And Multi-Stream CableCARDs are now mandated, letting consumers record one show while simultaneously watching another.

More faint praise for these reforms came from FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. "Most people outside this building probably don't know what a CableCARD is," she declared.

If you're wondering why some of these requirements weren't deployed a long time ago, so are we. Maybe CableCARD would have seen some success with better rules upfront, but that's digital water under the bridge now. The program has been a failure.

The next theater of combat will be the FCC's plan to require a standard hardware interface ("AllVid") that will allow consumers to integrate their broadband stream and their pay TV service into the reception devices of their choice.

Matthew Lasar
Matt writes for Ars Technica about media/technology history, intellectual property, the FCC, or the Internet in general. He teaches United States history and politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Emailmatthew.lasar@arstechnica.com//Twitter@matthewlasar